this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025
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Privacy
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Thank you, this looks most likely.
I wonder why this is needed. Why would a shopping center need long-range wireless networking devices?
It’s probably nothing but I remain curious and my embarrassing lack of networking knowledge will not get me anywhere.
It could also be that they changed out hvas systems or alarm systems and this is temportkary internet until they get a fiber connection which could take weeks to go through city permitting.
it's really common in retail where they have an interest in data analytics of their customers and don't trust their landlord or local isp (or have no isp readily available to them)
If they have a remote office that is line of site from the top of the building then this would cost orders of magnitude less than running a dedicated line, or leasing/paying for a dedicated network connection between the two locations.
This would let whomever installed it have a direct, private, local network that spans two locations for under $5000.
My old apartment building in a dense city got our Internet with a setup like this. The ISP transmitted the internet wirelessly to our building and then the existing copper wire POTS cables were used to distribute it throughout the building. Pretty weird setup but I still got 200 Mbps down 🤷.
If you have free internet in the area, like public wifi from the city, The shopping centre probably have an agreement with the provider to help extend the range. They put the dish up to connect to the existing network and then pump it out with repeaters around the shopping centre.
security cameras? Out building?